His Eminence Metropolitan Kallinikos (Karousos) was born in 1926 in Valtholomio, Ilia. He has studied Theology. He was ordained a deacon in 1956 and a priest in 1959. He served as abbot of Varlaam monastery in Meteora, dean of Apostoliki Diakonia and principal of the "Ecclesiastical Truth", the official newspaper of the Church of Greece. He was elected and ordained as titular bishop in 1975. He was elected as Metropolitan of Pireas in 1978.